Google Showcase

A condensed Stewdio portfolio organized by Google Images.

Why bother designing a portfolio site when Google automatically does it for you? Google Images organizes and displays thumbnails from images that it deems most relevant on any particular website. Utilizing this feature provides a familiar navigation interface with an emphasis on the visual.

For over a year this was the official Stewdio portfolio Web site. It didn’t just emulate Google, it was Google. A redirection script allowed the search giant’s bots to spider Stewdio.org while regular users were immediately forwarded to http://images.google.com/images?q=inurl%3Astewd.io. Subsequent internal pages constituted a hoax called “Google Showcase (Beta).” The hoax claimed to be an official Google web application for displaying an artist portfolio and participation was by invite only. Over the course of maintaining Google Showcase several visitors sent emails inquiring about the service.

Although the concept was perfect for Stewdio it was time to retire the hack in favor of something a bit simpler to browse and digest. Thank you to the handful of web nerds who understood the hack and found it exciting to actually see “google.com” in the browser’s address bar.